Ezekiel 47:9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing that lives, which moves, wherever the rivers shall come, shall live… Water is a Biblical emblem of salvation (Psalm 46:4; Isaiah 12:3; Zechariah 14:8). Only the salvation brought by Christ fulfils Ezekiel's idea of the healing waters from the sanctuary; and in what the Gospel has done and is doing for the world we see the realisation of the prophet's vision. I. THE SOURCE OF THE GOSPEL. Christianity, viewed on the human side, was an outcome of Judaism. To Jesus the temple was His "Father's house." He taught there, and spoke of the "living water" which He would impart. His chosen apostles and first disciples were Jews. One of His last injunctions was that the Gospel should be preached to all nations, "beginning at Jerusalem." II. THE PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL. The beginnings of Christianity had a small and feeble look, as of a tiny streamlet which might soon be dried up by the heats of persecution. But the stream kept deepening as it flowed, until it has now become as a great highway among the nations, carrying on its broad bosom ideas that revolutionise human thought and life, and furnishing a medium of sympathetic communion between men of far distant countries and climes. III. THE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF THE GOSPEL. 1. Are not the great salt seas of Hinduism and Buddhism already beginning to be influenced by the quickening and healing power of the water of life? 2. But the prophet saw (ver. 11) how the salt marishes, which were left by the subsidence of the sea, remained unhealed; the inflowing river did not reach them. Take care, then, Chat you do not cut yourself off from the healing and life-giving influences of the Gospel. (T. C. Finlayson.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. |
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